Tag Archive: memories

Whenever I hear The Waterboys – This Is The Sea, after the 1st minute of just basking in its glory my mind goes into a mental sideshow of the fun times of my seagoing career.

I wish I’d taken more photos of it all,had more physical reminders but I didn’t so I don’t have them, but I still have the memories of it.

They are memories of pratting about ashore in far flung corners of the world
They are memories of pratting about in far flung corners of a ships bar
They are memories of laughing & joking with others & strangers
They are memories of fixing & mending for others
They are memories of smiling & laughing about the pratting about
They are memories of nearly falling off a tender after a particularly fun fact finding mission in Pussers Rum Factory
They are memories of making people laugh
They are memories of things that can never be taken off me
They are memories of working at sea
They are memories of things that have changed me
They are memories of things that have made me
They are memories of all that is me, & things yet to come.

OK so a while ago I did a blog on music ownership and its ties to your life It was only a brief pre-amble before I launched into the top 5 most memorable/most owned songs of mine.

Anyway I thought I’d develop it a bit more.

Dick Dale once seaid that “Music is the soundtrack to our life” This is a stupid thing to say,what else is going to be a soundtrack? But I get the meaning behind it.

How often have you heard a song and its brought back a memory that, despite how hard you try, results in a gormless grin across your face as you remember the time you thought it would be a good idea to do 40 shots of Southern Comfort in one cocktail party to break fleet record (Walkie talkie Man – Steriogram) or the time when you got cruelly dumped just before you left for a new job (several years ago Linkln Park – In The End).

Its amazing how songs can bring out memories we thought we had hidden deep in the back of our minds. You cant remember why you walked into the kitchen, & all that changed was the colour of the walls, however 10 years pass and you hear “The Troggs – Wild Thing” and you suddenly remember the smell of the perfume of the girl and the time you and 15 of your best mates serenaded her with that song.

Music holds a lot more memories about the past than a lot of us realise. And it doesn’t have to be about the first time you heard the song. I 1st heard Dropkick Murphys – Bar-room Hero at college when I was 18 but it will forever be the song of the time and nights and early mornings I spent partying hard in the Wardroom on the Queen Mary 2.

Certain songs we can’t listen to without a twinge of sadness or bad times come flooding back to us. I can’t listen to Johnny Cash – I Hung My Head without a massive wave of shittyness washing over me. But I listen to it at least 5 times on the 14th Of September every year. We shouldn’t avoid these songs permanently. These songs are as much a part of out life as the memory they help resurface. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be associated with those memories.

We can’t help choose the memories that go with the songs. The same way we can’t help which memories we save for the long term.

All we can do is enjoy the songs that remind us of them. And pray that it isn’t a Daphne and Celeste song that reminds us of certain happy memories (Like one of mine is).